The Returned
by A Certified BAMF
Summary: 'Wendy,' Dipper asked slowly. 'What year do you think it is' Wendy stared at him. 'Huh? What are you talking about? It's 2018.' But Dipper was shaking his head, staring at her with sad blue eyes. 'No Wendy, its not...'
1. Chapter 1

The Returned

Chapter I

Wendy Corduroy hurt. With each dull throb that wracked her head, she could feel her eyes pulsate behind their closed lids. Her muscles ached from her neck down to her shins, and she could not for the life of her remember what she could have possible done to cause her body so much distress. A gentle gust of air licked her arms, and with a start she realized she was not at home in her own bed, but outside.

Wendy opened her eyes. Tall pine trees reached out above her towards an impossibly blue sky. The gentle babble of the nearby creek reached her ears, and Wendy slowly sat up.

She was in the forest. It was quickly recognizable. The small incline she lay on was on the edge of McKinsey Road, a small dirt path that wound through the forest from Route 45 to the edge of town. It wasn't really a road, not anymore, but it saved Wendy 20 minutes when she was going to and from the Mystery Shack. Yes, she recognized where she was immediately.

So why did she feel that there was something off?

It was little thing that seemed to set off alarm bells in her head. Like how the path seemed a little less defined. How there seemed to be an extra stump just across form her on the far side. She'd taken this route so often she knew it like the back of her had. And the brush underneath the tree line seemed more...wild. Unkept. As though no one had maintained the road for a couple of years. As these slight discrepancies caused a slight feeling of dread, another thought entered her mind.

How had she come to be lying in the middle of the forest?

Her mind raced. What was the last thing she remembered doing? She tried to recall the night before.

She remembers Soos asking her to stay late to help him stock some extra inventory for the shop. There where quite a few boxes, and she ended up being stuck there for the better part of the night. Not quite the way she wanted to spend her Saturday off from school. Sure, she only had about a week and a half left before summer, but she didn't want to spend the evening working. She had plans and preparations to make. Her sixteenth birthday was coming up, and, perhaps just as importantly, her two favorite doofuses were due to arrive the day after. She remembered being annoyed as she hopped her bike and left around 1130, and she could recall turning off the 45 and up McKinsey. Then...nothing. No memories of what might have transpired to cause her to end up asleep in the middle of the woods.

Wendy stood and stretched. She felt her muscles creak and pop, and some of the tension she felt in her shoulders lessened. She ran her hands along her pants and felt her phone in her left pocket. Thank god. Pulling it out, she flipped it open to call her dad, who was probably worried sick about her right now. But her phone wouldn't turn on.

_Battery must be dead. _She thought. A quick glance down the path told her she wasn't that far from the 45, which meant that the Shack was about five minutes away. They had a land line, so she could call her pa from there.

With her mind set Wendy glanced around her. Where was her bike? Unless somebody had stolen it, it couldn't have gotten very far. But as she searched up and down the winding path, she could find no trace of it. As she resigned herself to walking back towards the shack, a glint of metal caught her eye. Looking closer, she realized the metal bar was part of a larger object now tangled in the weeds.

With all her strength she heaved on the bar, and slowly pulled the object out of the tangled grasp of the overgrown brush.

_My...bike?_ she thought. And it was indeed her bike, though nothing like she had remembered. The metal was chocked with rust, and the bright red paint that had cheerily coated its frame was faded and chipped away. Both wheels were nothing more than rims, the rubber tires having rotted away. The seat was sun cracked and shredded, yellow fluff all that remained of the rich black cushion. The chain was missing.

'What the hell?' she said aloud. It looked like it had been out here for a good long while, exposed to the elements. Anger rushed through her. Just what in the hell was going on. She wakes up in the forest with no memory of how she got there, the whole area that she grew up around suddenly feels slightly off, and now her bike...her bike that her mother had given her before...

Angry tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she stared at the ruined treasure she cherished, but she refused to let them fall. Taking a deep breath, she steeled her resolve. It was time to get answers and that was going to start with retracing her steps. Gently, tenderly, she lowered the bike to the side of the dirt path. She'd be back for it. She'd call her pa and they'd come back here with his truck and take it home. And she'd fix it.

Quickly turning, she made her was up McKinsey Road towards Route 45, and upon reaching it, proceeded left down the footpath that led to the Mystery Shacks dirt road. She again noticed that the highway was in a state of disrepair. Not to any major degree, but the painted lines were faded, a few new potholes dotted the lanes, and here and there it looked like a weed was pushing up through the asphalt. Almost like the road saw very little traffic anymore. Which was impossible, considering it was the main highway in and out of Gravity Falls. What was going on?

She reached the Mystery Shacks driveway and proceeded up the straightway until the shack itself came into view behind the trees. Again she took a moment to look, and again, that same dreaded feeling that something was just slightly off about her second home hit her.

The Shack had always had a rustic look to it, but now it looked worn. The totem pole Stan had bought from one of the Indian tribes up north was dull, its paint no longer bright and welcoming. The carved wooden animals were less defined, looking as though time had simple stolen away the details. The house itself looked slightly better but still, the paint looked faded, especially around the big Mystery Shack sign. She could see a few busted shingles along the roof, and part of the rain gutter was missing. To top it off, and unfamiliar pickup truck sat were Soos's old Chevy would normally be parked. Which was nowhere in sight. Wendy guessed it to be about noon, so where could Soos be? Perhaps he was out looking for her?

Her mind quickly latched onto that explanation. She hadn't returned home last night, her dad had contacted him and he went to search for her. And in the dark, he had missed her lying on the side of the road. It made sense. And Melody would be here at the Shack in case she came back, and the truck must have belonged to a tourist.

Yes. That was it. That had to be it. It still didn't explain why everything looks so rundown, or why her bike had gone from a well maintained machine to a rusted hunk of metal in less than twenty four hours.

She approached the shack and quickly stepped through the front door. And blinked. The area she was in now was what should have been the Shacks gift shop, but now appeared to be a kind of library-slash-workshop. The two far walls were bookshelves stretching from ceiling to floor, the shelves overflowing with various tomes and scrolls. The counter she used to sit behind was bared of her cash register, instead sporting a number of vials and maps, and sitting in the middle was what, she supposed was a smashed tape measure with various tools around it. Behind the counter on the wall was a gun rack, various firearms siting along with a bow, a couple of future looking energy weapons she guessed were of Fords design, and what she recognized as the memory gun from that weird eye society. The vending machine still stood in its place, the one constant in a room that had seriously changed overnight.

Something was seriously fucked up.

Tentatively she called out. 'Hello? Melody?'

With no reply, Wendy moved from the gift shop turned laboratory past the stairs and into the kitchen. That at least, appeared the same, everything as she remembered, along with the living room. She made to turn and head upstairs in search when the coffee table caught her eye. For there, sitting upon it, was her trapper hat. The very hat she had traded with Dipper last summer, with the promise to trade back upon his return. The hate that wasn't supposed to be here for another two weeks. She picked it up. It was real. It was really here.

Wendy wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to grab her axe and take her frustration and confusion out on the woodpile back home. What it all of the nine circles of hell was going on? With the exception of the gift shop that had changed drastically, the rest of the world seemed almost the same. Almost. As though...

A thought crossed her mind, a sudden, frightening thought. Could Bill have returned? Could he be seeking revenge, trapping her in her mid while altering slight aspects of her world to torment her? But as quickly as it came, the thought left. These where subtle differences, and Bill Cipher was anything but subtle. With that though having calmed her she proceeded with her plan to look for anybody on the second floor. Hat still in had she turned the corner to the stairway and...

A boy she'd never seen before stood halfway up the stairwell. He stared with shocked blue eyes down at her from beneath brown shaggy hair, while his mouth hung open in surprise.

Wendy too, found herself shocked, but she recovered quickly. The boy was maybe a year or two older then her, and wearing nothing but pajama bottoms hanging low around his waste. She fought back the heat in her cheeks as she realized this half naked stranger was rather handsome. But then her eyes were drawn to his face, and there was, yet again, a feeling of familiarity to him. Those sky blue eyes staring at her as though she were a ghost come back from the dead seemed were eyes she knew. She knew him, but shed never seen him before, and especially not in this house.

'Wendy?'

He knew her. He defiantly knew her. As Wendy watched him, he shifted, and his brown hair moved reveling part of his brow. Her eyes widened. There, still partly concealed behind his hair, was a very recognizable birthmark. A birthmark she would know anywhere. A birthmark that should be on the forehead of a thirteen year old boy a hundred miles away right now.

In a hushed shocked voice she whispered up to him, 'Dipper?'

The boy in question moved so quickly Wendy almost didn't register it. One second he was up the stairs, and the next she found herself wrapped up in his arms as hot tears streamed down his face.

'Wendy.' he spoke again in a strained choke.

Wendy for the life of her didn't know what to do. A boy who couldn't be Dipper but was Dipper was hugging her and balling into her shoulder. Before she could say anything though, he quickly let her go and rushed towards the kitchen. Still reeling from these sudden turn of events, it took a moment for Wendy to follow him.

She found him in the kitchen on the wall mounted phone. He was staring intently at the wall and muttering to himself while he listened.

'Come on.'

He paused. 'Come on, come on, pick up. Please, be there.'

A moment later and Wendy could faintly hear a '_We're sorry, your call could not be completed as dialed...' _message before he slammed the handled into the receiver, picked it up, and dialed again. When the exact same thing happened, Dipper let out a sigh and banged his head against the wall. 'I'm losing my mind.'

He hung up the phone, turned and again had a shocked expression cross his face when he saw her. 'You're...still here.'

Wendy raised an eyebrow at him. 'Uh, yeah. I am. You wanna explain what's going on Dip, and why you're suddenly taller than me?'

This time though Dipper cautiously approached her and, slowly, reached his hand out and touched her arm.

He stared blankly at her. 'You're really here. You're real. H...How?'

Wendy stared at him. 'How? How what?'

'How are you here?'

Wendy stared at the boy incredulously. 'Dip, in case you forgot, I live in Gravity Falls. You're the one who shouldn't be here right now. And you're not suppose to be taller than me.'

_And you sure as hell shouldn't spring an attractive chest like that on an unprepared girl, _she thought.

Wendy shook her head. An older, handsome Dipper was suddenly in front of her, and she should be trying to figure out what happened, not ogle her suddenly hot friend.

Dipper opened his mouth to reply when the phone rang. His head whipped around so fast Wendy was sure he had whiplash.

Slowly, Dipper picked up the receiver and brought it to his ear. 'Hello?'

Wendy was standing close enough that she could hear the voice coming through from the other side. 'Hello? May I speak to Stan or Ford Pines please? Or perhaps Mr. Ramirez, if they're unavailable? Please, its urgent.'

In a strangled gasp Dipper whispered, 'Mom?'

A pregnant pause past before the women on the other end spoke again. 'Who is this?'

'Mom its me. Its Dipper.'

'Dipper?' Mrs. Pines asked. 'Dipper, are you ok? What are you doing in Oregon? Why do you sound so different?'

But it appeared Dippers mind had endured all it could for the day, and he slid down the wall and sat on the floor, the phone falling from his grasp. Wendy quickly grabbed it and brought it to her ear. 'Hello, Mrs Pines? This is Wendy. Wendy Corduroy.'

'Oh hello Wendy dear. What happened? Is Dipper alright? Do you know what he's doing at the shack?'

Wendy glanced down at the trembling form of her friend. 'No, I'm sorry Mrs. Pines, I don't. He was here when I arrived, but he's unhurt.' Not a complete lie, but she wasn't about to tell Mrs. Pines her son was suddenly almost an adult. 'Are you ok?'

'I'm fine dear we all are. We've just been worried sick about Dipper, I mean we all just woke up and the house is in shambles and he's gone. His father and I didn't know what to think, and Mabel's almost in tears.'

Wendy stopped watching Dipper and started focusing on what Mrs. Pines just said. 'Just woke up? What do you mean, like just now?'

'No.' the Pines matriarch responded. 'About half an hour ago. And I felt just terrible as well. Why? What's this have to do with anything?'

'I...don't know Ma'am. Do you think you could get up to Gravity Falls. Dippers safe with me right now, but I have a feeling he'd sure like to see you.'

'Of course, dear.' the older women responded, before her voice took on a more angry tone. 'And that boy is going to get a piece of my mind. Honestly what was he thinking running away like that. He's going to have some explaining to do.'

Wendy glanced down again. 'Yeah. He is.' before hanging up the phone.

She then sat down across from him and his eyes seemed to focus back on her. Good, time for some answers. 'Alright Dip, what's going on? Where's Soos and Melody?'

Dipper closed his eyes, took a breath, and leaned his head against the wall. 'Wyoming. They moved to Wyoming.'

Wendy gasped. 'That's not possible. Dipper I just saw them yesterday.'

This time Dipper opened his eyes and looked at her. Really looked at her. 'You have no idea what's going on do you?'

'No!' Wendy almost screamed. 'I don't got a fucking clue what's going on! Everything's all out of wack and I'm trying to find answers!'

But now Dipper was studying her closely. 'Wendy, what year is it?'

That brought her up short. 'Huh?'

'What year is it?' he asked again.

Wendy paused. 'It's...2018.'

Shaking his head, Dipper looked at her with sad eyes. No Wendy. Its not. Its 2023.'


	2. II

Chapter II

Marie Elisa Pines glanced at her sleeping daughter through the rear-view mirror. They were two hours into the 13 hour drive north from Piedmont to Gravity Falls, and after an exhausting barrage of questions about her missing brother, Mabel had finally worn herself out and fallen asleep in the back seat. Marie had done the best she could to answer, but what really caused her anguish in her heart was that she just didn't know. She didn't know why Dipper was in Gravity Falls, or how he had gotten so far north, or why their family home looked like it had been effectively been abandoned, she just **didn't** know. And it was eating her up with worry. She sighed and looked out her window. A light rain had started to fall, and the pitter-patter of the rain falling on their windshied was rather soothing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"He's alright, honey." her husband said. "That Wendy girl is is a good kid. Heck, the way the kids describe her, she kinda reminds me a little of you at that age."

Despite it all, she smiled. He could always read her. Hell, she knew he was just as worried as her. "I know, Edd. I know. I'm just..." She ran a hand through her hair. "What the hell is he doing up there, Edd? And how did he get there? Two and a half hours ago he was in his room studying for his math final."

Eddward Pines glanced at her. "I don't know sweetie. But I'm sure there's a logical explanation." The moment Marie had hung up with the Cordoury girl and had informed him where his son was, they had quickly loaded up into his old Cherokee. His very dusty Cherokee, with faded paint and a dead battery. Luckily they had a few spare car batteries in the garage, for just such an occasion. However, the dead battery wasn't it's only problem. His wife had deduced and managed to replace the fuel pump in about twenty minutes, and they were off. He probably could have figured it out himself, she had taught him quiet a bit, but they were in a rush, and she was the mechanical genius in the family. Astrophysics was more his thing.

He turned his eyes back to the road. This was going to be a long drive.

_The Mystery Shack_

_2nd June 2023_

"So...Dipper..."

The young man glanced up at his red haired companion across the kitchen table. She had a determined look in her eyes, a look that implied she would not stand for anymore stalling, that she wanted answers, and she wanted them now.

He sighed. "Alright Wendy. Where do you wanna begin?"

Wendy arched her brow. "Well, let's start with the fact that I've somehow been sent through time to the year 2023. That's like, 5 years from my now. What happened? Can I get back?"

Dipper raised his hand. "Ok, first, you haven't been sent through time. There was no time machine or anomaly that hurled you into the future. This is real time. You can't go back to the point you...disappeared because...well you can't. I'm not an expert on time travel, but I do know that you going back will cause a paradox, and we can't have that."

Dipper took a sip of the soda he had sitting on the table. "As for why you were gone, well..."

He turned his head and glanced out the window. He said nothing for a long moment, trying to gather his thoughts.

"You weren't the only one I lost."

Wendy was taken aback by the ragged edge his voice took. He cleared his throat and turned back to her.

"You may have noticed I'm alone here."

Wendy nodded. "Yeah man, I did. You said Soos was in Wyoming, but where's Mabel? Or Stan and Ford?"

Dipper let out a heavy sigh. "Stan passed away about two years ago. Quietly in his sleep. Lost Ford almost six months after that. He threw himself into his work after Stan, and I guess everything caught up with him. He...had a heart attack. They're buried outside, if you didn't see."

Wendy did recall seeing head stones outside, but at the moment she hadn't put any significance on it. But now...tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Her old boss, a man she really looked up to was gone. And she didn't get to say goodbye. She hadn't known his brother as well, but he was always friendly whenever she was at the counter, giving pleasant conversation as he paused moving between the secret basement and the great outdoors.

A tear did manage to escape, and that really was all it took for the dam to burst. She didn't understand. Not any of it.

Here was her friend, almost a year older then her now, and apparently already used to living on his own. Both his Grunkles had passed, and his parents...his sister...

Wendy hadn't asked about Mabel yet. She was scared of the response. She hadn't seen her, but with the way Dipper acted when his mother called...well she had a pretty good idea.

Whatever had taken her had taken Mabel and his family as well.

Dipper raised his head and gazed at the ceiling. "Here, let me start at the beginning..."

_5 years earlier_

_Piedmont California_

_26 May 2018_

Dipper usually enjoyed Algebra. Really he did. But as he stared at the repeating numbers and letters, his frustration with his current teacher became more and more pronounced. He could understand him wanting to show his work. But right now he had them rewriteing the entire equation every time they changed something to it. This went beyond being a simple memory exercise and crossed into pointless, almost sadistic, busywork.

Eventually he stretched at his desk, before standing and heading out his room and down towards the kitchen for something to drink.

"Hiya, bro!" A highpitched, girly yell screamed at him from the living room.

Altering his course, he stuck his head through the doorway an spied his sister sitting cross-legged in front of the coffee table, while his father, opposite her, stared intently at the chess bored positioned between them.

Teaching Mabel chess, in Dippers opinion, was an exercise in futility, but Eddward Pines was determined to ensure his daughter understood the basics. Why, he didn't know, but Dad never did anything without a reason. It might simply be he'd wanted to spend more time with her, although no one could say the Pines patriarch was distant or inattentive of his little girl. She had him wrapped around her finger, and everybody but him knew it. Even Uncle Ed had cracked a joke about it, and, to be fair, he was a bit...dense.

Dippers eyes narrowed at the board. ''Dad?" He asked.

Mr. Pines never looked up, but he responded. "Yes, Dip, what is it?"

"You're losing."

His father said nothing for a long moment, and then sighed in exasperation. "I know."

"I don't understand. How are you losing?"

His father finally looked up at him. "It makes no sense. Her moves are completely random, yet they've effectively blocked every strategy I've employed." His fathers gaze swung back to the board, helplessly. "It doesn't make any sense."

Mabel grinned happily. "Dad promised me ice cream if I won." She proclaimed proudly. "I think we'll go to Farrell's."

"That's gonna be expensive." Dipper laughed. His dad groaned in defeat.

With a grin at his sister, Dipper turned and proceeded into the kitchen. Grabbing the jar of peanut butter, he had just set himself up to make the best PBJ ever when the phone rang.

Dipper glared at the handset mounted to the wall, before letting out a groan and answering it.

"Hello?" he asked, keeping the annoyance out of his voice.

The gruff, no nonsense voice of Dippers uncle, Eddy Palmer, came out of the receiver. "Hey there, squirt. I needa talk to your dad."

_Odd, _Dipper thought as he shouted out to his dad. Usually Eddy (while he was his uncle, through marriage to his moms sister, he always felt weird putting the title before his name) would joke around a little with whichever twin answered the phone. Despite portraying a serious, focused persona, Eddy was quite funny and loved messing with his young niece and nephew.

When no response came from the living room, Dipper put down the he reciever and trecked across the kitchen and into the living room.

No one was there.

His fathers and sisters game still sat, layed out on the coffee table, but said family members were no longer seated playing. The room was empty, except for a weird white, ashy dust beginning to settle on everything.

Curiously, Dipper ran a finger through it. It was fine, _very_ fine, to fine to just be average dust, and Dipper wondered if perhaps his father had brought some weird work home with him, and Mabel had accidentally destroyed it. Perhaps they went to get a vacuum?

Dipper hurried back towards the phone.

"Sorry, Eddy, I'll have him call you back in a minute, ok?"

The phones dial tone was all he heard.

_Weird, _he thought as he hung up. He contemplated finishing his sandwich, but his curiosity over the fine powder prompted him to seek out his family.

But they weren't in the hall grabbing the vacuum. A quick search of the downstairs revealed it to be empty, and a tendril of apprehension wormed it's way into Dippers heart. He raced upstairs.

"Mom?" He called as he entered his parents room, wondering if perhaps the others had stepped out.

It was empty. And the same, powdery dust covered the room.

Alarm bells went off in Dippers head. Enough dealing with the supernatural told him something was not right, and that his family was possibly in trouble. A hasty search of the rest of the second floor confirmed it. No one was in the house.

He was alone.

_The Mystery Shack_

_Present Day_

"I called nearby relatives first." Dipper stayed tiredly. "Neither of my aunts or uncles picked up. They were...gone too."

Wendy sat in stunned silence as Dipper told his tale. Finding himself all alone as half the world disappeared at the snap of a finger. It was all so unbelievable.

And she had too. She had disappeared to dust along with billions of others. She had _died._

_"_Anyway," Dipper continued, "besides you, Gravity Falls was mostly spared. I think Soos and his family were safe because of the unicorn border, but I can't begin to tell you how people were chosen. The only other person here who...vanished was that guy Tad Strange. So I guess the town got off pretty lucky."

Dipper looked out the window. "Other towns didn't though." He glanced back at her. "You know Sleepy Peak? That town 20 or 30 miles north of here with all those summer camps?"

Wendy nodded. She had visited the small town with her dad when he journeyed up to discuss a logging contract. She remembered a weirdo with buck teeth in a Boy Scout uniform or something trying to flirt with her.

"Well apparently the whole town was wiped out. Only three people left. Two camp counselors and a camper. Her parents were gone, so I guess they just kinda adopted her. I mean, everyone was running around like chickens with no heads trying to figure out what the hell happened, no one cared to make it official. They actually live here now. Guess they didn't wanna hang around a ghost town."

Dipper stood and moved towards the fridge for another Buzz Cola. Wendy didn't even register his movement.

"When things calmed down a little, reports started flowing in from all over." Dipper continue as he opens his soda with a loud hiss. "Apparently the cataclysmic event that wiped out the population was triggered in Africa. Officially, it was a madman with a lotta power had some type of doomsday device. The government never disclosed specifics, but from what I've learned...well, this guy was apparently not from Earth."

And now there were aliens. _This story's just one curveball after another, _Wendy thought. She jumped slightly, surprised when Dipper reach over and put his hand tentatively on hers. She idly wondered when he sat down.

"Hey, you ok?" He asked, concern written all over his face.

Wendy opened her mouth, and closed it again. She glanced at the floor. "I don't know."


End file.
